Farmer’s Market Feast: Springtime Edition

Farmer’s market season officially in full swing in Peoria, IL, with this year’s opening of the downtown Riverfront Market on Saturday, May 20th. The market is held on just off the 200 block of SW Water Street, and is open 8:00am to noon every Saturday from now until September 30th. Not only is the market a Saturday morning social event featuring live music, mimosa’s and Bloody Mary’s, and art from local creators, it is also a great place to get to know your local farmers, taste test new nourishing recipes, and pick up some delicious produce for the week. Market-goers can expect to find a feast of locally grown and produced fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses, and breads. The Riverfront Market is for producers only, meaning everything sold there is fresh from the farm, right here in Central Illinois.

The opening day of the farmer’s market is like a holiday in my world, which is why I was feeling extra appreciative of the hard work in dedication of the farmers as I browsed the tents on a rainy opening day this year! Whatever the weather, after a morning at the market, I feel inspired! With the bounty of affordable, colorful, and fragrant fruits, vegetables, and herbs, it is hard not to buy everything and eat it right on the spot while I browse the rest of the booths! I’ll let you in on a little secret – among the abundance of benefits to eating local, the flavor of the food is by far one of the best! There’s a saying in my husband’s family that goes like this: “There’s only two things in life that money can’t buy and that’s true love and home grown tomatoes.” Shh!…don’t tell them that you can now buy home grown tomatoes at the market! But the point is that locally grown food just plain tastes better. If you’re in doubt, pick up a bunch of carrots the next time you’re at the market and let me know what you think!

Today I am sharing a recipe, inspired after my first farmer’s market visit of the season. I created this recipe with hope for you to be able to customize it to your taste preferences. It is also easy to alter the ingredients based on whatever is available and in season at the market, thus the title “Farmer’s Market Feast.” It is, essentially, a salad. But not just any salad…this salad is your own masterpiece! It is a way to appreciate and enjoy all the beautiful colors and flavors of the season in their raw and unaltered form. And yes, there are a few other healthy and delicious ingredients (and splurges…this Wisconsin girl loves her cheese!) thrown in, just for fun! So without any further ado: The Farmer’s Market Feast: Springtime Edition. (Note: the full, condensed recipe and nutrition information can be found at the end of the post.)

The first step in this recipe is figuring out what you want to put on your salad. Based on what was available at the market on Saturday, I chose spinach (DMG BeeHaven Farm), tomato and strawberries (R&R Hydroponics), baby carrots (Garden Spot), asparagus (Grandma and Grandpa’s Farm), and green onion (L ‘n L Produce). The remainder of the ingredients, including the sugar snap peas (which should be coming to the market soon!), eggs (can also get these at the market), avocado, and dressing ingredients, came from the grocery store.

Next you want to clean and prep all of your produce. Although most farmers do a great job cleaning and bunching their produce before bringing it to the market, it never hurts to give everything another good rinse with cold tap water to make sure all the dirt and debris is washed away. This is especially important to do with your greens, which have a lot of cracks and hiding spots for dirt, also making them the most difficult to clean. A salad spinner is one of the easiest, most effective and efficient ways to wash greens, so I highly recommend having one if you eat a lot of salads. If you don’t have one, however, don’t fret! It’s as simple as putting your greens in a colander and giving them a good rinse and toss (below, bottom left), and then laying them out on some clean kitchen or paper towels (below, bottom middle). You can also cover them with another layer of towel and gently dab to remove more excess water (below, bottom right).

The next step is to prep all the produce to be layered onto the salad. Any cutting technique will get the job done, but it is always fun to mix it up to create pretty shapes, sizes, and textures if you’re feeling adventurous. For the baby carrots, cut the tops off (reserve some of the tops to add flavor to your salad!), and then slice in half lengthwise to create pretty pointed arrows (below, left). For the tomatoes cut crosswise into slices (below, top right) and quarter each slice. For the strawberries, trim the tops off and thinly cut into slices so they can be fanned out onto the salad (below, bottom right).

For the asparagus, you must first break off the bottom of the spear. It is very woody and tough to chew, so it needs to be removed. The easiest way to do this without wasting any of the edible part of the asparagus is to grasp the root end of the spear with both hands. Then, gently bend the asparagus (below, top right), moving your way up the spear until it snaps (below, bottom).

Then, trim the tops off and set them aside for the salad (below, left). These are the most tender and flavorful part of the asparagus. You can also dice these up into smaller pieces if you’d like to disperse the flavor throughout the salad. I chose to leave them whole for aesthetics. Then, using a vegetable peeler, peel the rest of the asparagus spear into ribbons, starting at one end and working your way down the spear using firm pressure (below, right).

Prep the snap peas by slicing diagonally on the bias to create small rings (below, top left). Use the same technique to slice the tops only of the green onions. Save the white and bulb of the onions for a different use (a great way to use them would be to chop them up and toss them in with a stir fry!). Cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the pit, reserving one half for the dressing. With the other half, cut in half again and peel away the outside skin (below, top right). Then slice each piece into thin strips. Crumble queso fresco into a bowl with your fingers (below, bottom). (Note: this type of cheese is really delicious and adds a lot of flavor to the salad, however it is also the source of the majority of the saturated fat in the recipe. If you are watching your saturated fat intake, but still want to savor the flavor of some cheese on your salad, choose a low fat version – low moisture, part skim shredded mozzarella would be tasty!)

Now that all the produce toppings are ready, it is time to poach the egg. Usually eggs are added to salad in the hard boiled form, but poaching is a great way to switch it up and add some creaminess to your salad. Oftentimes this cooking technique is seen as intimidating, however it is not as difficult as it sounds! You can follow these few simple steps to make yourself a perfectly poached egg on the first try!

Start with the freshest eggs you can. Use older eggs for scrambling, frying, or hard boiling.

Fill a saucepan 3 inches deep with plain tap water, and set over a burner set to medium low heat (below, far left).

Crack your egg into a fine mesh strainer set over a small bowl (below, middle left). This allows the watery part of the white to drain into the bowl while leaving the sturdier part of the white intact. You can save the watery white and scramble it up for breakfast another day.

Once the water has started to simmer and bubble slightly (not boil!), gently lower the strainer into the water and tilt to allow the egg to slide out (below, middle right).

Let the egg cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set on a paper towel to drain off excess water (below, far right).

The only thing left to do before assembling the salad is to make the creamy cilantro lime avocado dressing, which is so flavorful it is out of this world! Plus, it is incredibly easy to make because most of the ingredients are added to the blender whole. You will, however, need to zest the lime using a Microplane® or the finest side of a cheese grater (below, left), and harvest the juice by squeezing it with your hands or a manual juicer. You will also need to de-stem the cilantro stalks so you are left with only the leaves. This can be done easily by pinching the root end of the stalk with all 5 fingers and pulling all the way down the stalk until the leaves are removed. If there is some stalk left over that is okay! Once you have done this, add all the dressing ingredients to a blender and process until smooth (below, right).

Assemble the salad by layering all the prepped ingredients, topping with the poached egg, drizzling with your homemade dressing. Don’t wait too long to dig in to this delicious dish!

These are likely calcium deposits. Normally they are on the outside of the shell as they deposit naturally if cracked while still in the hen’s body. I would pick them out before cooking and eating the egg. Eggs with shells that have calcium deposits on them are still safe to eat.